Exploitation of oil and gas reserves can be improved by increasing fracture area during hydraulic fracturing to enhance hydrocarbon production. Many fracturing techniques have been employed to fracture one or more rock formation of a given reservoir to improve the conductivity and flow of hydrocarbon fluids to a wellbore. In many types of rock formations, however, existing fracture techniques are limited in providing an optimal effective fracture area. As a result, well production and recovery of hydrocarbon fluids within the reservoir are restricted.